I am travelling solo sometime in 2012 to south east asia, and this thread has given me some good ideas.

I always thought about moving from A to B to C etc, and never really base myself at a hub.

Flying in from LHR, I would preferrably like to arrive at SIN, stay a few nights and splurge at Marina Bay Sands, or Capella, and then start my budget tour.

But for example, if I did a weekend trip to Yogyakarta from Singapore, do you think I should fly back to SIN before heading on to DPS? AirAsia do not fly JOG-DPS only Garuda do, and their prices are more expensive then if I went back to SIN first. Seems a bit pointless, but if money is an issue...

Singapore is so expensive though, 28 days staying at Ibis on Bencoolen still comes to £900 - and I'm not going to go lower standard than that. However, basing myself in SIN makes it a little annoying to get to places like Siem Reap or Luang Prabang. Silkair can take me there, but they are very expensive, so to make budget air travel work for me, I would need base myself in KUL, or at least BKK.

Malaysia doesn't appeal to me much, as a budget traveller. Of course, I would love to visit The Datai but not going to happen. So generally, for me, basing yourself in BKK is a no brainer if you want to explore "Indochina". I also want to explore Myanmar, and BKK is perfect for that kind of excursion too.